The only thing on my mind that morning was my interview and test at Clerkenwell at noon. I was a strange mix of nervous and confident as I made my way to the tube station, going over interview questions in my head, preparing mentally.
No tube! Not a good start - but all I was told was that the Jubilee Line was not running - so I hopped on a bus. The driver got as far as London Bridge and said he wasn't allowed to drive into the city.
There was not very much information - there was certainly no-one in a panic. Station staff were sympathetic and told me I should walk into the city.
I was Belfast child - so bombs don't scare me. By now I had heard that there had been a series of explosions on the tube and as I walked through the streets of the City there were many others on the roads, calmly walking to their destinations. I rememeber distinctly thinking what a pleasant day it was to be out walking, how calm and focused my fellow Londoners seemed.
I finally arrived at journalism college, where they were a bit shocked I had turned up. I said something about being a bit of a crap journalist if a couple of amateurs with bombs would stop me getting here.
I sensed I was in already - the test was easier than I could have hoped. I even got to correct the interviewer. He thought asking who lives in the Palace of Westminster was a trick question as no-one does. It was a very sweet moment when I inquired with all the innocence I could muster: "So you have never been asked up for a drink in the Speaker's apartment? It is in the tower next to Big Ben. He lives there when the House is in session."
By this point I knew I was in.
The interviewer asked me about the bombs. My first thought was - it is not the IRA. Too much murder for them - they like event terrorism.
It was only when I got home and switched on the TV that I saw the enormity of what had hit London. I thought for a moment about going down to one of the bomb scenes to observe, be a journalist. I had no stomach for it - I had seen lots of bombs in my life. I know the scene - the eerie calm, the police trying to organise and secure the scene, dazed passers-by.
It was when I was back home that I started to feel it. An immense sense of pride in London and my fellow Londoners. People came to our city to try and terrorise us - to make us live in fear of our surroundings and eachother. They came to try to punish and divide us.
And everyone - every single one of us - did not panic, did not run screaming into the hills never to return. We got up the next day and got on with our lives. We mourned those who were killed. We fixed those who were hurt. We repaired the smashed tube lines and got on with being citizens of the greatest city in the world.
There are too many stories of individual courage and bravery. Often it is the smallest acts that can be the most touching. I remember hearing about people in offices streaming out into the streets to help walking wounded, taking them into their offices and cleaning them up, giving them a cup of tea, and phoning their family just to let them know they are safe. The staff at Great Ormond St who set up a field hospital in their canteen and dealt with wounded. No emergency plan is required to tell those dedicted nurses how to act in a crisis. The supermarket manager who gave his shop and anything in it to the emergency services, the bus drivers who filled their bus with walking wounded and took them to hospital.
So proud.
I remember about a month later, going through the pile of newspapers by my bed. I came across one that had never been opened. This pristine copy of the Guardian had a huge picture of cheering crowds in Trafalgar Square on the front page. The headline "One Sweet Word - London" proclaiming our shock success in securing the 2012 Olympics. The date - July 7th 2005.
Joy and tragedy. Happiness and pain. Two days that no Londoner will ever forget. Perhaps they attacked us because the eyes of the world were on London.
I did not hear the comments of our Mayor at the time. When I read them later they made me cry, for in his words Ken encapsulates what makes our city great, and why it continues that greatness:
"I wish to speak directly to those who came to London today to take life.
I know that you personally do not fear giving up your own life in order to take others - that is why you are so dangerous. But I know you fear that you may fail in your long-term objective to destroy our free society and I can show you why you will fail.
In the days that follow, look at our airports, look at our sea ports and look at our railway stations and, even after your cowardly attack, you will see that people from the rest of Britain, people from around the world will arrive in London to become Londoners and to fulfil their dreams and achieve their potential.
They choose to come to London, as so many have come before because they come to be free, they come to live the life they choose, they come to be able to be themselves. They flee you because you tell them how they should live. They don't want that and nothing you do, however many of us you kill, will stop that flight to our city where freedom is strong and where people can live in harmony with one another. Whatever you do, however many you kill, you will fail."
I know that you personally do not fear giving up your own life in order to take others - that is why you are so dangerous. But I know you fear that you may fail in your long-term objective to destroy our free society and I can show you why you will fail.
In the days that follow, look at our airports, look at our sea ports and look at our railway stations and, even after your cowardly attack, you will see that people from the rest of Britain, people from around the world will arrive in London to become Londoners and to fulfil their dreams and achieve their potential.
They choose to come to London, as so many have come before because they come to be free, they come to live the life they choose, they come to be able to be themselves. They flee you because you tell them how they should live. They don't want that and nothing you do, however many of us you kill, will stop that flight to our city where freedom is strong and where people can live in harmony with one another. Whatever you do, however many you kill, you will fail."
